Implementing Social Impact and Sustainable Development in Robotics and Digital Systems Education: A Tec21 Model Approach

The Tec21 model includes as one of the requirements that all students understand the most pressing issues facing humanity and, above all, the commitment that (we) as an institution have to social development, sustainability, and ecology. With that in mind, the design of the university curricula includes at least one semester with a "human sense". In this semester, it is proposed that the students fulfill a significant portion of their commitment in the activities known as "Social Service", where they must provide their professional services, unpaid, in activities of social impact. For this, we initially agreed to attend to some requirements and problems inherent to mobility and inclusion, primarily addressing the primary emergencies detected by the Inclusion and Accesibiity Department of the Monterrey Campus. We proceeded with a planning exercise, as well as the creation of teams to work on the application of the knowledge learned up to the 6th semester of the Robotics and Digital Systems career. The results presented are preliminary, but they form the basis of a series of technological platforms on which the future and iterative development of these pressing needs will allow an impact not only locally but even nationally. © 2023 IEEE.